Excuse me for not posting on a daily basis this week, but life got in the way.
Last Friday, I woke up to 12 inches of new snow on my 120-foot driveway. Not a big deal except that the temperature was hovering around 0 degrees Fahrenheit. So I bundled up and got the job done in less than two hours.
After I got the snowblower and shovels back in the garage, I closed the garage door and (Bang!) the garage door spring broke. It is a two-car wide garage door and weighs so much that it is impossible to raise it without the spring.
My daughter and I managed to raise the door with the assistance of the electric garage door opener so we could get the cars out of the garage, but that was such an intensive two-person operation that we were resigned to not using the garage door until the spring could be replaced. So instead of using the garage door for the majority of our entrances and exits from the house, we had to use the front door.
Saturday was ever colder than Friday and when we returned home after dining with some friends, I snapped the key off in the dead bolt lock when I tried to unlock the front door. We got into the house with a spare key through the back door and I unlocked the dead bolt lock manually from inside. The front door has two locks, so we could still use it the door, but I needed to get the dead bolt lock fixed.
By end of day Saturday, I had three calls into garage door repairmen and one call into a locksmith.
The locksmith showed up early Tuesday morning and spent 45 minutes unsuccessfully trying to remove the broken key from the lock. He figured that it was frozen and suggested that I soak the lock in WD-40, then try to get the key out myself and reassemble the lock. He warned me about being careful if I had to disassemble the lock works in order to get the broken key out because the works might "explode."
Midday Monday, a garage door repairman showed up. He said he had to order a replacement spring and would be back late Tuesday or early Wednesday to install it.
Meanwhile, I had to go out and buy a can of WD-40 because I had used up the last can. About 2 PM, I filled a small cup with WD-40 and began soaking the lock works. At 6 PM, I checked to see how the soaking was going. The lock works still seemed frozen. The broken key did not seem any looser than when I started the soaking.
I figured that the only was to get the key out was to disassemble the works. So I stuck the works in a vise and tried removing the lock works cap with a pair of pliers. It took a few attempts, but I finally got the cap unfrozen. But the key was still not moving, so I slowly removed the cap and the lock works "exploded" with pieces of the works flying all over the garage!
The broken key was now free, but I had to spend the next 90 minutes on my hands and knees in an ice-cold garage gathering up all the pieces of the exploded lock works.
After consulting the Internet, I realized that I could not reassemble the lock works without some sort of jig, so Wednesday morning, I phoned the locksmith and he told me to bring the parts to his shop and he would reassemble the works. I immediately brought the parts to his shop and he reassembled the works. I went home to reassemble the lock in the front door.
Meanwhile, the garage door repairman called and said he would be showing up around noon Wednesday to repair the garage door spring, which he did.
I forgot to mention that our big screen LED TV died a few days earlier!
And so it goes!
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| Wearing JustFab (Source: JustFab) |
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Except for the three women in the foreground, all the women in this scene are femulating actors in the 1990 film The Witches. (Thank you, Zoe for this femulation.)
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Wow-days like that convinces a person that there is no such thing as gravity; the whole earth sucks. I'm glad you did not attempt to replace the garage door spring as you could severely injure yourself by not installing the spring correctly.
ReplyDeleteI called a garage door repairman to replace a broken spring. Mind you, I have replaced brake linings, car radiators, rebuilt a carburetor, etc. But some things are best left to the pros.
I have had the unfortunate happening of taking a lock cylinder apart. The whole thing exploded. So I went to a building supply store and found the same brand lock and had it rekeyed to fit my key.
I fix a lot of things. At our old house, I even fixed the garage door spring, but it was the kind that stretched along parallel to the garage door rails. I won't touch the tightly wound torsion springs over the front of the garage door at our current house!
DeleteI have an old hairdryer I use to thaw frozen items such as a car lock.
DeleteWe used a hairdryer and it did not help!
DeleteThank you. You rarely talk about your "real" life, and it's nice to get to know you a little bit better.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome! I didn't think anyone would be interested in my non-femulating life.
DeleteI feel the same way because we get to see the balance between the different "you"s and how they can possibly intrude on each other.
DeleteMen over age 60 are NOT supposed to shovel snow, no matter HOW fit they are. The cold temps and strong exertion can cause a fatal heart attack. Hire some high school kid. You were young once. Now it's their turn to work hard.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on the person. Some individuals should not do it in their 40's. On the other hand if someone is truly fit and not susceptible to heart attacks and is careful, (s)he could do it in his/her 80's.
DeleteIt is interesting to get a glimpse of your daily life, but what a series of disaster you had. I hope your luck improves.
ReplyDeleteOther than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play ?
ReplyDeleteNot a good week, I hope there are better days ahead for you Stana
I have lived this part of your life. About a year ago the spring for the steel two car garage door broke. I had to do the same thing you did and get the heavy door up once to get the cars out until the repair man came a few days later. I have also had a key snap off in a frozen lock. Some days you are the dog and some days you are the fire hydrant.
ReplyDeletePat
Stana, I feel your pain! My broken parts over the last two weeks of cold include a broken spring (which I did replace) and a broken starter pull rope on the snowblower. So, I too shoveled in that 0 degree weather. Also being over 60, I am glad we both made it through.
ReplyDeleteFrom the book '1001 Logical Laws' "Whatever hits the fan will NOT be evenly distributed".
ReplyDeleteStana, unless it was some kind of special lock or the locksmith is a relative and doing it for free, wouldn't it have been cheaper to just get a new one at Lowes or Home Depot? I mean I understand a Quest and everything...most trans people do. LOL
ReplyDeleteHi Beverly - It was "special" in that it was old and discontinued and no currently available lock would fill the large hole in the door that the old lock required.
DeleteOK, that makes sense then. I have a lock like that on a sliding glass door.
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